Ontario task force prepares Canadians for total solar eclipse and beyond [Video]

Anticipation is building for the total solar eclipse on Monday that astronomers are calling a “once-in-a-lifetime” event, which will plunge areas under the eclipse’s path into darkness.

For the past few months, cities along the totality’s path have been bracing for an influx of visitors, but one group in particular has been getting ready for this moment for the past several years — and the moment is finally here.

With a name that sounds like it might have been borrowed from a science fiction universe, the Ontario Eclipse Task Force (OETF) is made up of scientists, educators and other leaders in the field of astronomy who have met once a month for more than a year to prepare for an event that will last only approximately three-and-a-half minutes.

“It’s really an unreal experience,” described astrophysicist Dr. Ilana MacDonald of University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, who also chairs the OETF.

“The sky becomes very, very dark. So …